most/all of the IJN CLs and DDs will carry supplies in a fast transport mission. i reccomend loading your supply carrying ships then adding a surface combat TF to it. keep in mind the fast transport will stop short of the target so it can land at night. sometime this will leave you in air range before or after unloading.

you may wish to fine tune start distances. having a following TF will disrupt your timing some.

rms/pa

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there is a technical term for those who confuse the opinions of an author's characters for the opinions of the author. the term is IDIOT.

Don´t worry too much about enemy air as long as the Allies do not completely control Guadalcanal. If you use Shortland only as the final stop before making the run down the Slot, port attacks cannot stop you, and (more so in case you got a HR against heavies below 10k) the heavies suck at naval attack. Everything else will be close to max range. A bit of fighter cover ofer Shortland should suffice for the moment.

What I did was: When transporting troops: Loaded up @ Rabaul, set to "do not unload", set patrol zone with 0 days @ Shortlands, next turn the TF was waiting there. Then I enabled unloading and set target Tassafaronga. With only 7 hexes distance usually this was enough to make the run at night, unload, and be out of range again during the day.

When only transporting supplies Shortlands was enough as a base of origin.

Just be careful as soon as the Allies start using PT boats in the area. Then it might get time so switch over to SSTs, or use DD escort TFs.

What I did was: When transporting troops: Loaded up @ Rabaul, set to "do not unload", set patrol zone with 0 days @ Shortlands, next turn the TF was waiting there. Then I enabled unloading and set target Tassafaronga. With only 7 hexes distance usually this was enough to make the run at night, unload, and be out of range again during the day.

When only transporting supplies Shortlands was enough as a base of origin.

Just be careful as soon as the Allies start using PT boats in the area. Then it might get time so switch over to SSTs, or use DD escort TFs.

Excellent advice. Thanks Baron

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"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." ~Winston Churchill

When a TF needs to go to a destination where the enemy has air superiority and there is a possible surface combatant threat, but you want them to move there anyway without retreating early, set Threat Tolerance to 'Absolute'/'Direct'.

By doing so you avoid most of the annoying situations where your TF retreats after covering 2/3rds of the way, and then finds itself in broad daylight in range if enemy air because it - after 'successfully' retreating - resumed course to destination.

Also set cruise speed for the hop from Rabaul to Shortland (6 hex distance only, so cruise speed is enough to make it in one day for ships that do 15kts on cruise) to not waste precious fuel, and set to 'do not refuel' to avoid wasting op points refuelling at Shortlands.